As with steps throughout the MATCH process, the job overview augments the mission of the organization. This is done by clearly tying the functions of the employee with the company's main purpose.
The job overview has two parts:
Note
Sticky Notes:
Set aside two to three hours to compile a job overview.
The job overview is the job description plus the skills required.
Skills should be measurable with a clear "yes" or "no."
Writing the job overview is an exercise in bringing clarity to yourself, your hiring team, and the candidate. Though it may seem like an exercise in writing down the obvious at times, your worst enemy here is the tendency to make assumptions about what the role does and the related required skills. Assume nothing. Write it all down.
Keep the following formula in mind:
Time spent clarifying a job description+Time spent clarifying skills = Time saved in the long run.
The job overview should focus on the responsibilities and qualifications necessary for the position. However, you may brush up against some other areas of the overall hiring process—formulating the salary range or marketing the position, for instance. Set those topics aside for the time being; you'll get to them eventually. For now, just stick to the description and the skills.
An intriguing benefit of writing a clear, detailed job overview is that every now and then, you realize you don't actually need the position; for you already have someone on staff that can complete the tasks! Assuming you do need to hire, however, the job overview:
Sharpens your own focus on what the job requires
Forces you to consider the must-haves versus nice-to-haves
Provides an objective measurement of the candidate
Provides the basis for a professional training program, if needed
Helps define the relationship between individuals within a department, as well as between departments
Provides a basis for evaluation in salary and title
Allows the candidate to immediately walk in and know what their duties are in terms of:
First projects
Objectives
Intended results of this role
Allows you to clearly evaluate your candidate pool's ability to do the job needed
Creates a template for future hiring needs in the same area
Creates a document for return on investment (ROI) and success/failure review
Most candidates, of course, want to do a good job. Why is it, then, that so many employees wind up as nonperformers? I have found that, in most cases, the issue is simply poor communication, starting with the job description. Employees don't know what to do because no one tells them, or worse yet, someone tells them the wrong thing to work on.
In highly effective organizations, responsibilities and expectations are written down, reviewed carefully, and agreed upon by the new employee and the hiring team. When there is lack of clarity, then both the employer and employee proceed based on their assumptions of the role. If those two sets of assumptions are out of sync, the results can be disastrous. It's sad when an otherwise good employer and good employee clash at review time over a completely avoidable problem. It is therefore imperative to have a well-written job description.
Note that the MATCH process does not advocate a job description that details every move that an employee makes. In fact, we have found that most effective companies list the desired objectives and hire candidates who are able to use their creativity in achieving those objectives. Top-down, detailed approaches rarely work.
The critical components of the job description are:
Title of the position
Department, location, hiring manager, reports to?
Mission of both the company and the role
Summary description of role, including key responsibilities
Percentage of time to be allocated for responsibilities
Evaluation method for key responsibilities
Projects to be undertaken
Percentage of time to be allocated on projects
Percentage of required time for traveling
When the hiring team gets together to write the job description, I suggest starting the dialog by posing the following three questions:
What are the three most important objectives this new hire will achieve in their first year and how will they be evaluated on each of those three objectives?
After 6 months, where do we expect the new hire to be in the completion of his or her objectives? What about after 3 months? 1 month?
Our new hire walks in on their first day: What is their first task? What about the second and third tasks? What comes after that?
Starting with three long-term objectives and working backward, allows the hiring team to focus on the big picture before zooming in on the job description and skills needed for an effective job overview.
Questions about skills should be answerable with a clear "yes" or "no." In other words, the candidate either possesses them or does not. There isn't much gray area here.
The critical components of this skills arena include:
Industry knowledge
Exposure deemed necessary for success (e.g., private equity, venture capital, Wall Street, public company, small company)
Education
Accreditations
Languages spoken
Software skills
Number of years deemed critical to success
Management skills (e.g., people management, hiring and firing, planning, project management)
Be specific when you write out the skills. For example, instead of making a general statement like "know Excel," write: "Use pivot tables in Excel to extract data from Oracle to analyze tax data." Make it clear exactly what level of exposure your ideal candidate will possess.
Now that you have the job description and the skills required for the role, you combine the two to create a job overview.
Here is a sample job overview that we used successfully. You can find other samples at www.danerling.com.
Accounting Manager–General Ledger (GL) Job Overview
Job description
Position: Accounting Manager–GL
Department: Accounting
Location: Atlanta
Reports to: Controller
Company Mission
To deliver our product to 100 percent of our clients 100 percent of the time in a reliable and personalized manner that allows us to become the clear industry leader in our field.
Job Mission
This position contributes to company success by managing the preparation of consolidated generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) financial statements, month-end close processes, and alternated account reconciliations.
This position contributes to company success by managing the preparation of consolidated GAAP financial statements, month-end close processes, and all related account reconciliations.
Summary of Key Responsibilities
Responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:
30 percent:
Prepare monthly, consolidated GAAP financial statements.
Develop and present monthly financial statement package to include financial results, variance analyses, trends, and actionable recommendations.
Detail review of balance sheet reconciliations.
Journal entry review and posting.
Responsible for month-end close process and working closely with other accounting managers to decrease days in close.
Develop and implement additional policies and procedures that govern financial statement preparation and monthly close process.
30 percent:
Interface with auditors (internal and external) on compliance issues and all levels of the organization to communicate financial processes.
General ledger and new vendor maintenance and review.
Ensure that all processes and procedures related to execution of general ledger responsibilities are controlled and documented in accordance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
10 percent:
Lead special projects as required.
Required Skills
BS/BA in accounting
Full cycle accounting and monthly close experience: 5+ years
Experience in financial management practices, including a basic understanding of internal controls sufficient to analyze transactions and activity to determine whether they comply with regulations, terms and conditions, and policies and procedures: 5+ years
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting experience: 1+ year
Public accounting experience: 2+ years
Internet service provider experience: 3+ years
Certified public accountant (CPA)
Comprehensive experience understanding and prior experience with design and implementation of accounting policies and procedures: 5+ years
Experience with Microsoft FRx Report Writer: 1+ years
International accounting experience: 1+ years
Knowledge of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Financials: 3+ years
Percentage of travel required: less than 10 percent
Once you've completed the job overview, set it aside for a day and then re-read it—this time looking at it from the candidate's perspective. Put yourself in their shoes. Is the wording clear? Do your requirements seem reasonable—or are you asking for Superman or Superwoman?
Common Mistakes in Job Overviews
Requirements are too inflexible. I once worked with a company that would not interview a candidate with strong skills in a specific computer-based system (Peoplesoft ERP) because they were looking for experience with a very similar computer system (SAP). The company did not have compelling reasons for this—it was not a subject matter expert role, nor was an implementation on the horizon. In this case, inflexibility led to exceptional talent not being evaluated.
The wording is too vague. Again, think in terms of measureable skills or knowledge. "Good management skills" is vague; "Three years of experience in training new staff" is more precise.
The description is too short. We have found that writing a long, detailed job overview facilitates a candidate pool that is more likely to be qualified for the job. Longer job overviews seem to lend credibility to the search, enticing the "right fit" and working to turn away the nonqualified candidate.
Lack of care in crafting the description. Many times, I will review job overviews with poorly organized thoughts, misspelled words, and a poorly formatted structure. In hiring markets, both good and bad, the best organizations always strive to appeal to exceptional talent.
The candidate should be able to visualize the first days on the job and the overall responsibilities and requirements for success. A carefully crafted job overview (job description plus required skills) is your main tool in painting that picture. The effort you put into the job overview will show, and you'll be rewarded not only by making a great first impression but also in setting the stage for a clear and structured interview process.